Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
Description of the Related Art
There is provided a printing apparatus which prints an image by repeatedly executing printing scan in which ink is discharged while relatively moving a printing unit including discharge port arrays including a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink arranged in rows with respect to a unit area of a print medium.
For the above-described printing apparatus, shortening the time taken for executing printing on a print medium has grown in demand. In order to achieve shortening of the printing time, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-044389 discusses a printing unit which includes printing heads, having a plurality of discharge port arrays for discharging a plurality of color inks, mounted on the right and the left sides thereof in a scanning direction. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-044389, by using the above-described printing unit, ink is discharged from only a left-side printing head to a left-side area of the print medium in the scanning direction, while ink is discharged from only a right-side printing head to a right-side area in the scanning direction. With this configuration, printing time can be shortened because the printing unit can complete printing without scanning the entire area spanning from a position facing the left end portion of the print medium to a position facing the right end portion of the print medium.
In the above-described printing apparatus, as illustrated in FIG. 2B of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-044389, it is known that one printing head and another printing head are arranged on the printing unit in opposite orientations. Specifically, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-044389, printing heads including a plurality of discharge port arrays, which is for discharging a plurality of color inks, arranged in an arrangement direction of the discharge ports are used, and the printing heads are arranged on the right side and the left side in opposite orientations, so that the discharge port arrays of the left-side printing head are arranged in the order of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow from the upper side to the lower side in the arrangement direction, whereas the discharge port arrays of the right-side printing head are arranged in the order of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black from the upper side to the lower side in the arrangement direction. Because two identical printing heads are used when the printing heads are arranged on the printing unit in the above-described state, the production cost can be lowered and a user can be prevented from erroneously attaching the printing head when replacement work is performed.
However, when the above-described printing unit on which two printing heads are arranged in the opposite orientations is used, color difference occurs in an area where printing is executed by only the left-side printing head and an area where printing is executed by only the right-head printing head, which may lower image quality.
For example, in a case where so-called “one-pass printing” in which color inks are discharged on a unit area through one time of scanning is executed by using the printing unit illustrated in FIG. 2B described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-044389, color inks are applied to one area in the order of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, while the color inks are applied to another area in the order of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black.
When a plurality of color inks are applied in different orders, colors of acquired images may be different from each other even if ink of the same color and the same amount is used. Such color difference occurs in the area where printing is executed by only the left-side printing head and the area where printing is executed by only the right-side printing head, which may lower the image quality.